As a writer, what can you learn from other arts discplines? What can you learn from the arts as a whole? In this interview, Dr. Patricia Hoy shares her insights as a conductor, arts administrator, teacher, woodwind doublist, blogger and, now, author of the wonderful book Arts Awareness, just released by GIA Publications.

Why did you decide to write Arts Awareness? Where did the inspiration come from? Did the inspiration come at a particular moment or had you already been planning to write the book?

For more than 30 years, I’ve kept notes about my experiences and observations. I kept these musings on little scraps of paper and stuffed them in a drawer.

The notes weren’t organized at all. In fact, they were crumpled pieces of paper and sticky notes that happened to be handy at the time.

About 7 years ago, I started looking through the piles of paper and realized there were clear patterns and connections between my own experiences and my observations of the experiences of others.

The decision to organize my thoughts and put them into a book came with some trepidation. I’ve never written a book before. But my experiences as an artist reminded me to simply begin.

I had fun sorting through these hundreds of pieces of crumbled and odd shaped notes, smoothing them out to see what I described, thought, or sketched over the years. It started slowly, but I soon noticed a thread of themes that spurred my enthusiasm. Finally momentum took over; it continued to build, making it increasingly easier to stay focused and make progress.